"Relic"

8" x 10" Oil on panel
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Is it bad that painting has become an addiction for me? I'm chasing after the perfect image, the perfect light, the perfect color like a heroin addict chases after the perfect high...The thing is, I know they can never BE perfect, but I feel like I have to keep trying. Even as I write this blog I'm seeing ways that I could make this painting better. I guess this is why some artists fixate on a certain subject and paint it over and over again. What's comforting to me is that I haven't really painted that many paintings...So, hopefully, I will continue to progress toward my idea of perfection. I know it's not everyone's idea. I'm after a certain type of image and feeling that appeals to me for the same reason my favorite music appeals to me. The reason is tough to pinpoint and it varies from day to day, but with certain constants.

Ok, enough rambling. I found this old barn while I was out working yesterday near Round Hill, VA. Round Hill is a little town located about 50 miles west, northwest of Washington, DC, near the Virginia/West Virginia border. I call the painting "Relic" because the barn is located in the middle of what is now a subdivision. There are paved streets, curbs, fire hydrants and brand new vinyl siding houses all around this poor old barn.

I thought about doing this painting differently and adding in some of the new houses and paved streets. The juxtaposition of the old barn in the new subdivision is what drew me to take the picture in the first place. I guess you don't really get the feeling that I was after without the subdivision, but I like the painting for what it is...